Did We Pass the Trump Test?

Here's the big question for the day. Have we passed the Trump test?

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. When I wrote Evangelicals at the Crossroads, when we passed the Trump test and it came out this past summer, so the summer of 2020, I meant two things by the Trump test. One, can we unite around Jesus even if we disagree about Donald Trump? I'm talking about within the body, fellow believers. Can we unite around Jesus even if we divide about Trump?

That's one. And two, can we vote for Trump and support his policies without tarnishing our witness, without degrading our witness, without making Jesus look bad? Now, some of you say, well, why would they hurt our witness at all? And others say, of course it hurts your witness. Well, we'll unpack that.

We'll talk about that. But I'm curious to know your own perspective. Some of you may be white Evangelicals. Some of you may be black Evangelicals. Some of you may be conservative Hispanic Catholics. Some of you may be Asian Christians from different backgrounds, perspective, Messianic Jews. We all have our own circles where we interact with lots of people, family members, friends, people we work with, our own congregations. Some are very multiracial, some not so much depending on communities and things like that. And the issue of elections and how you vote is very different depending on where you live, very different perspective, a lot of different priorities. So that's always interesting to hear. That's one of the great benefits of live talk radio that I've enjoyed so much over the years that I've learned from so much over the years is the varied perspectives in the body. So I'd love to hear your different perspectives as to whether we pass the Trump test 866-344.

I'll be getting the calls a little bit later in the broadcast. But again, two things I mean by the Trump test. One, can we unite around Jesus even if we divide over Trump? So over these last four years, how do we do with that?

And two, can we vote for him and yet preserve our witness? And I'm actually going to help us sort this out by going through 10 things that I said are essential keys for passing the Trump test. But first, let's address some larger issues. If you are new to the broadcast, listening, watching, I want you to understand that I am not here as a conservative talking head, a conservative pundit.

That's not why I'm here. I am here as a follower of Jesus, as a minister of the gospel who believes that God's kingdom intersects with this world and impacts this world. And therefore, we as believers should shine like light. We should be salt of the earth, light of the world.

We should make a difference wherever we are for good. That we are neither in terms of our essential identity, conservative or liberal, Republican or Democrat. We are in terms of our essential identity, followers of Jesus with our citizenship in another kingdom. That although we are good patriots to our country where we live, if our country turns against God or demands that we turn against God, we have a higher allegiance. We say with all respect to your authority, whether you're the mayor or the governor or the president, with all respect to your authority, we have to obey a higher authority. We must obey God rather than men. It's not based on rebellion. It's based on obedience. So I take issue with the gospel being draped in the American flag or any ethnic flag.

I take issue with that because the kingdom of God transcends culture, nation and impacts all and calls all people, Americans, Canadians, Mexicans, people all around the world, calls all people to bow the knee to the Lord Jesus. And as we bow the knee to him, we should have a positive impact where we live. Here, for example, here's a husband. He's a lousy husband. He's a lousy father. He's an alcoholic. He wastes his money.

He doesn't spend quality time with his kids. He's even been violent with his wife. He gets radically, gloriously, beautifully born from above and becomes a devoted follower of Jesus. Well, you better believe his life's going to change. If his life doesn't change, then you can question the validity of his conversion and salvation. But you would expect that this man is no longer an alcoholic.

You'd expect that this man is tender and gracious towards his wife and loves his kids and spends quality time with them. Well, what about in every other area of life that as we are changed, the people around us will be positively impacted? And that's how the gospel brings social change. Now, we also vote.

We get involved in different aspects of society. We don't drop out over citizens of heaven. Well, citizens of heaven still got to work a job. Citizens of heaven still got to put food on the table. Citizens of heaven still need a place to go sleep at night, right?

And you need to be able to read and write and so on. So we live in this world, but we do not bow down to the system of this age or to the gods of this age. So I wrote an article. I want to take you back to 2012. I wrote this article immediately before the 2012 elections. So this was Mitt Romney versus Barack Obama. And I want to share with you what I wrote in this article that says we already have a viable third party, okay?

It's published at town hall end of October 2012. According to the latest polls, only one percent of voters will cast their ballot for a third party candidate, which means that all the talk of a protest vote against the two main parties will amount to little or nothing. If there is already a viable third party in America, it simply needs to awaken to its calling. Dr. Martin Luther King spoke of this third party as well, although not in those terms, saying that it must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state. King was speaking of a group of multiplied millions of Americans whose ultimate citizenship is in heaven, to use the expression of Paul in the New Testament, Philippians 3, of people who are called to go against the grain and challenge the status quo to be champions of justice and compassion, to lead the way in societal change. He was, and I am, speaking about followers of Jesus who take their faith seriously and live it out holistically, those who make up the church from a biblical standpoint as opposed to Christians in name only.

It is this entity that King believed, quote, must be the guide and the critic of the state and never its tool. For the most part, though, we have fallen short of this lofty calling, and I say we because I count myself among this company of Jesus people, for better or worse, becoming pawns of the political system, more than pioneers of political reform, puppets more than prophets, rather than us changing the society. Note, I did not say taking over the society. Society has changed us.

The things that would have outraged our grandparents now entertain us. And for a supposedly heavenly minded people, we are as bogged down in materialistic hedonism as almost anybody else. Even among evangelical Christians, recent surveys indicate that 80% of our young people are having sex out of wedlock, while our divorce rates mirror those of the secular world.

How can we be the conscience of the state when we've lost our own conscience? How can we call ourselves profoundly and pro-life with so much immorality, including addiction to pornography, no-fault divorce, and even abortion in our ranks? What's interesting is that many skeptics, scoffers, atheists, and agnostics, those who are rolling their eyes as they read this article, actually affirm what I'm writing, albeit in a backhanded way. What I mean is that it's often those who mock our faith who are the first to call us hypocrites, recognizing that if we really believe what we preach, we'd be living differently. In fact, society as a whole actually expects us to live differently, and the average American still expects Christians to help the poor, live wholesome lives, and transcend partisan politics. Of course, there are some Christians who, as the old saying goes, are too heavenly minded to be of any earthly good, but that is actually a violation of the teachings of Jesus.

Judaism is less prone to fall into that trap, and we do well to remember that Jesus was a Jewish teacher, not a member of the Christian clergy. A more balanced perspective is this. Because we understand that what happens in this world has eternal implications for good or for bad, we recognize the importance of life in this world, and are on the front lines of bringing about positive change while at the same time resisting societal decay. This is part of what Jesus meant when he told his followers that they, we, are the salt of the earth and the light of the world.

Would anyone deny that Jesus, who talked much about heaven and hell and the world to come, constantly emphasized the importance of caring for the needy in this world, along with reaching out to the marginalized? Practically speaking, because our first allegiances to God will serve our nation as the best possible citizens, and because our greatest affiliation is to proven biblical values, we'll identify with those values first, and with the political party second. Yet all too often, white evangelicals have given themselves to the Republican Party and black evangelicals to the Democratic Party, even when those parties have failed us. It's time we step higher. Yes, I'll vote on November 6, primarily backing Republican candidates, and I see voting as both a responsibility and a privilege.

This again was written in October of 2012. But as I've written several times before, I'm not putting my trust in the White House or Congress or the Supreme Court to change America. I'm looking to the committed followers of Jesus to be the primary agents of change, the ultimate counterculture counter-establishment party. Simply stated, if tens of millions of American Christians followed the teachings and example of Jesus, there would be a groundswell of compassionate and constructive care for the poor.

There would be wholesale educational reform, the multiplication of strong families, a new esteem for the importance of every life beginning in the womb, the reduction of our prison population, and even the revamping of our prison system along with economic growth and a massive increase in philanthropy, among other things. So yes, I'm voting on November 6, but more than that, I'm looking for the third party to rise. So friends, again, I wrote that in 2012. It reflects what I felt and believed all these years.

There's nothing new or different about it. And the bottom line is, as I've said over and again over the years, that if I drew up a list of the 10 most important ways to change America, change America for the good, change America so it's a better country for all, change America so that it's stronger in family and stronger in morals and stronger in compassion and stronger in equity and justice. If I was drawing up a list of the 10 ways to do it, voting would be on that list, but maybe number 9 or number 10. In other words, it's not going to be primary or secondary or tertiary.

It's not going to be up top at all. The top things are going to be prayer and repentance and evangelism and discipleship and holy living and compassionate outreach and practicing our faith in many, many different ways. And then, oh yeah, also we vote. We've so turned things upside down that the vote and the election, that's everything.

And the stuff God's really given us, the stuff that could really change the nation and the world is the stuff that we often neglect. All right, we'll come back and answer the question, have we passed the Trump test? And I'd love to hear from you variety of backgrounds at this city's perspectives. 866-34-TRUTH. It's the line of fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Get into the line of fire now by calling 866-34-TRUTH.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. My goal is to build up. If I tear down, if I correct, it's only with the goal of removing the bad to replace it with something better. So if I say something that challenges you, that bothers you, well, first ask, is it true? Is it accurate? A lot of things bother me because they're true. A lot of things that are said to me get under my skin because they're accurate.

And so I need to deal with it rather than resist it. So if I'm speaking the truth, Paul wrote to the Galatians, have I become your enemy by telling you the truth? If I say some things in the minutes ahead that disturb you, well, ask why. Is it because I'm wrong? Is it because my perspective is off?

I'm opinionated and arrogant? Or is it that I'm speaking the truth? Think it through. Evaluate it.

866-34-8-7-8-8-4. I wrote an article that is up on different websites speaking to Christians who voted for Joe Biden and saying, did you not see this coming? Did you not see his radical abortion agenda, not just rescinding the Mexico City policy, but the Hyde Amendment that forces all Americans to support with their taxes abortion? Did you not see his radical transgender activism? He said he was going to do all these things. He made it plain he was going to do all these things. Did you not see this coming when you voted for him?

Just asking questions. You said, well, you vote for Trump. Yeah, we've been asked for four years how we could vote for Trump, how we could vote for Donald Trump and be followers of Jesus. We've been asked for four years. And that's a perfectly legitimate question, a question I welcome. And the question I welcome is to overall, in the end, as we look back in the years ahead, was it good or bad?

Was it worth it or not? Fair questions. Ask away.

But I'm going to turn around and ask questions as well. The transgender activism of President Biden is so radical that I can give you quotes from gay activists, feminists and transgender leaders that are upset with it. They're upset.

They say it's not good. It's not right. And Israel, there's great concern about Iran potentially getting a nuclear bomb and and and through the Biden administration. So my question is, did you not see this coming? And and and for all of those that self-righteously say how a Christian could not vote for Donald Trump, now you turn around and vote for Joe Biden. Well, how about we all come with a little less self-righteousness?

How about that? How about we all put the stones down right now and start instead of throwing stones at each other? How about we all lay low before the Lord and say, God, we need you because the church is confused and there's a lot of division and America is in a mess right now. How about we come with less self-righteousness?

All of us, OK, me included, all of us come with less self-righteousness and come with humility and meet together at the foot of the cross. How about we start there? How about we start there?

All right. So have we passed the Trump test? In my book, Donald Trump is not my savior, came out in 2018 and it had new material in the beginning and the end and other and otherwise about 100 of my most relevant articles on Trump from opposing him in the primaries to tentatively getting behind him to vote for him, to ups and downs with him as president. And then the last chapter of the book, Donald Trump is not my savior, just lays out, OK, how do we move forward? How do we move forward? So if you have the book, Donald Trump is not my savior, it is the last chapter. And and it's evangelicals in the elections. Where do we go from here?

That was 2018. OK. And I laid out these basic points. I'm not going to read through the chapter, but I just want to give you the basic points I laid out and then my basic analysis of the Trump test.

Then we'll get your views as to whether we passed or not. OK, so number one, this is the final chapter of Donald Trump is not my savior. Number one, we must rise above the political fray.

According to the word of God, his followers of Jesus were citizens of another kingdom seated in heavenly places with ultimate allegiance to another lord. And while we live in this world, we're not like this world. That means that we cannot get caught up in a partisan political spirit. We must step higher. Friends, I warned about that. I warned about that in 2018, and you didn't need to be a prophet to warn against it. So that was number one.

Number two was this. Regardless of party affiliation, we must remain independent. For my own conscience, I'm registered as an independent. I'm not saying you're wrong to register with the party. I just say for my own conscience, that's how I've registered. But whatever your party affiliation, you must remain independent as a believer. You belong to Jesus, not to the Republicans, not to the Democrats, not to the libertarians, not to another party.

All right. Number three, we must stay involved. We don't abandon the political system. We don't abandon this world because then others that differ with our views will take over and we'll have no liberty to live out our faith. And then number four, God uses unlikely vessels, but character still matters. In other words, God can use a Donald Trump, but his character flaws will have a negative impact. This is 2018, friends.

I wrote this. Number five, we must stand for the issues near and dear to the Lord's heart. So what really matters to the Lord? When you read scripture, what are the things that are most important to him?

Let those things be most important to us as well. Number six, sometimes we must function as the president's loyal opposition. And I referred earlier in the book to a Jewish scholar, Yochanan Muffs, who wrote an article entitled His Majesty's Loyal Opposition, a study in prophetic intercession, where Professor Muffs argued that prophecy is a dialectical tension between passive transmission of divine anger and active intercession in the name of prophetic love. He added, the life of Moses is a vivid illustration of the prophet as intercessor.

The stories of the Exodus are marked by periodic eruptions of divine anger, which are soothed by the wise intercession of Moses. So sometimes prophetic people need to oppose where the leader is going in the name of God's will. And then seventh, our calling goes beyond patriotism. America is an amazing country, one that many other nations seek to emulate. We've really been richly blessed with freedoms and resources and opportunities, and in many ways we're blessed to be Americans. But America is far from perfect. And even though we've done so much good worldwide, we've also done evil.

And I go through that. And of course, our history is very much a mixed history, which is why I don't primarily say God bless America, make us bigger, greater, stronger. I primarily say God your kingdom come to America.

How many times have you heard it over these four years that when you hear the slogan Make America Great Again, a white American hears that differently than a black American or a Native American American, right? You're going to hear that differently based on your perception. Okay, so before we go to your calls, 866-344-TRUTH, my book Evangelicals at the Crossroads, the last chapter is 10 essential keys for passing the Trump test. I'm just going to lay these out very briefly in the next three minutes or so, and then we'll come back. We'll talk with you. We'll get your perspective as well. All right, so again, it's a full chapter in a full book.

We will only look at the key points. So in order to pass the Trump test, this is what I put in the end of this book that came out last summer. Number one, we must clearly and emphatically put the cross before the flag. Number one, we must clearly and emphatically put the cross before the flag.

And look, if you live in China, if you live in Iran, obviously you're not looking to, the whole goal is not make China great, make Iran a great, it's advance the kingdom. But in America, we often mingle the cross and the flag or even put the flag first. So to pass the Trump test, number one, we must clearly and emphatically put the cross before the flag. Number two, number two, we must proclaim that Donald Trump is our president, not our savior. We must proudly, loudly, clearly proclaim he's our president, not our savior.

You say, well, we all know that. Well, why are so many so depressed, hopeless, discouraged because Trump lost and Biden won because Biden's our president? Well, if you weren't looking to him in an unhealthy way, then why, why are you so hopeless in despair, discouraged, broken? Why can't I even talk about it?

Because you're too upset with me to even talk about it. That points to looking to him in a wrong way. Okay. Number three, we must put greater emphasis on spiritual activity than on political activity. Point number three, we must put greater emphasis on spiritual activity than on political activity. May 12th, 2020, I tweeted, if only we were as passionate about prayer as we are about politics, the nation would be rocked almost overnight and our own lives would be transformed.

All right. So that was point number three. Point number four, we must not get caught up with election fever. Ooh. Asking the question, did we pass the Trump test? That was in July.

I wrote it here. We are end of January, early February now, and still people caught up with election fever. That was point number four to pass the test. Point number five, we must not justify carnality and unChristian behavior.

Point number five to pass the Trump test. We must not justify carnality and unChristian carnality and unChristian behavior. So if the president acts in ways that we feel are wrong and righteous, we don't justify it. We don't apologize for it.

We don't defend it. Number six, and here I quote Dr. Martin Luther King at length. Number six, we must regain our prophetic voice. As he said, if the church does not regain its place, recaptures prophetic zeal, it will become an irrelevant social club without moral or spiritual authority.

How relevant is that today in America? Number seven, we must be holistic Christians. Number seven, we must be holistic Christians, truly pursuing justice and righteousness for all.

And that means we're going to be challenging one another to see blind spots that we have. Number eight, to pass the Trump test, we must walk in love towards those who vilify us and oppose us. The words of Jesus, the teachings of Paul in the New Testament. And number nine, we must unite around Jesus rather than divide over Trump. This is point number nine. If we're to pass the Trump test, we must unite around Jesus rather than divide over Trump.

And lastly, point number 10, we must lead the nation in repentance, knowing that repentance prepares the way of the Lord, opening a path for revival, visitation, and awakening. Here are the 10 points for passing the Trump test. Did we pass or did we fail? We'll take your calls when we come back.

Eight, six, six, three, four, eight, seven, eight, eight, four. Horse, I'm doing my best to learn what has happened to observe the behavior of the body in America and around the world today, as best as I can, to see how we went through a certain major test crisis in America. We're ongoing going through ongoing tests and crises, even as I speak and to see what we can learn so that we can move forward effectively. My reason for looking back and evaluating is just like coaches looking at a game after it's been played, an NFL game, maybe they look, they evaluate the tape to see what they can do better next time. Or when I write a manuscript and send it into the publisher and the editor has feedback, it's going to learn from that and sharpen things for the next time.

So that's the goal. I'm not trying to prove a point, not trying to say, I told you so, not trying to have some morally superior attitude, but rather say together, what can we learn? Have we passed the Trump test? What did we learn four years with Donald Trump?

What can we learn to move forward more effectively as followers of Jesus? Eight, six, six, three, four truth. With that, we start in Raleigh, North. No, we don't. It's going to start in Raleigh, but I guess we're not going to. Let us go over to Jay in Boise, Idaho. Welcome to the line of fire. Thank you.

Yeah, go ahead. So my question was kind of pertaining to, you know, it's sort of the same general question that you've probably heard before about the, you know, how does, how does one justify the Trump support? To give you some context, because the context of the question I think is what makes my particular version of it different than some of the stuff you may have heard. I am a deeply conservative, deeply Christian person. I did not vote in 2016 at all. I did very begrudgingly vote for Trump in 2020, thinking that some of the cultural damage that was done was kind of already done, but couldn't really be undone at this point. But I've been speaking, you know, throughout the last four or five years about what I found to be an incredible concern, you know, when it comes to support of Trump, because he was, he's the most openly supportive president of, you know, things like homosexuality and stuff like that that I'd ever seen. He was the most, you know, openly blasphemous as far as, you know, retweeting things, calling himself the second coming of Christ and, you know, referring to himself as the chosen one, or retweeting things that would call himself King of Israel. And he would be, you know, the most openly immoral, right, when it came to the three wives and the adulteries multiple times, and owning strip clubs and gambling rings and all this kind of stuff.

And it just, it concerned me because, you know, there's only one dam that kind of lets, you know, keeps the waters out, so to speak. And it was the specifically Christian conservatives. And it almost seems to me that they just forfeit any sort of role in being that dam that kept out these immoral waters and just sort of decided, well, to own the list, right, I'm going to go ahead and jump whole hog into this guy. Right, so, so Jay, to respond to that, I do believe that in many ways, our moral authority, our moral stand, stature in the country has been compromised, because many look at us as just political pragmatists, that we're the ones that for years shouted character counts. We're the ones that said morality matters. We are the values voters. And here we vote for someone that would seem to be very different in terms of integrity, in terms of values, in terms of things like that.

And in certain ways, it has compromised or witnessed, but I believe we can justify the vote. The immorality in the past that was passed. In other words, Trump was not bringing in women into the, he wasn't bringing Marilyn Monroe types into the White House to sleep with them as JFK was, and was not, you know, did not have a scandal like Bill Clinton did in the White House in terms of a sexual scandal. And the stuff he retweeted, to me, he didn't mean any of that.

He was just retweeting it in kind of a silly way and also just to provoke people to get him upset. My issues would have been more his character in terms of his pride and everything being about him, the way that he would throw others under the bus, right up to Mike Pence at the end, that if he didn't perceive loyalty at the level he wanted, that he would trash and destroy people, that he would call people, political leaders, they're from what we know, are decent, God-fearing people, call them enemies of the state. As the president, I found that tremendously destructive. And then just the level of division and kind of chaos that was brought, that there is, in a sense, a lot more peace right now without the constant chaos that Trump himself would often generate. I mean, everything would be good and calm, and next thing he'd be stirring up a fight. You know, the one theory of people close to him is he always needed an enemy.

Newt Gingrich called him the great disrupter, that he wakes up every morning and says, what can I disrupt? So it kind of brought a frenzy and even deeper divisions. We're divided already, deeply divided in America, but threw things into a state where we've almost just learned to hate, that Christians now are just supposed to hate. And if you're Trump's supporter, you hate the Democrats. They're all evil.

They're all demons. They're praying for Biden's like praying for Satan himself. I mean, we're just infused with this hatred. And instead of looking at everybody as lost sinners that need Jesus, we become massively polarized politically. But that being said, if we had said, OK, look, there's a lot we don't like about Donald Trump.

And there's a lot in terms of the way he carries himself and behaves himself that we really think is hurtful to our nation. But we see where the Democrats and the left are going. And we're making progress in pro-life that can be completely undone. So we're talking about the slaughter of the unborn. We're talking about a real attack on religious liberties and freedoms.

What kind of world are we going to give to our kids and our grandkids? We're talking about security and safety in Israel. Now they're concerned about Iran getting a nuclear bomb. We're talking about standing up against Islamic terrorism. One of my colleagues in Israel, we were doing a panel discussion the other day online, and he said, look, during the Obama administration, there was a bloodbath in Syria and surrounding nations. He said about 650,000 people were killed. He said the women were they would take women, these Islamic radicals, and they would have like a big pit on the ground and keep the women in the pit, bring them up, gang rape them and put them back. He said atrocities. He said basically under Trump, the thing stopped.

So you kind of like you said you voted for him begrudgingly. If we had said, look, these are the issues that are important to us. These are humanitarian issues.

These are issues that should concern every person of conscience. And we believe Trump would do a better job here and then say, but look, we don't defend this. We are not becoming like him. We are not emulating his character. And we would we would protest the things that he did and said wrongly and pray for his repentance and say that he's just a man. We're not looking to him to change America.

We're just voting for him to be president. We could have come out of it better. In my personal opinion, sir, we compromised our own ethics in the process rather than us bringing out the best in him.

I think we did some of that. He brought out the worst in us. If you don't believe me, just go to my social media page. Just go to Ask Dr. Brown on Facebook and just look at any article that's politically oriented and look at the savagery and the comments and the anger and the hostility and the demonizing of different sides and the inability to even have a conversation. And then those that look to him as if he alone, he alone can save America.

He alone can save the free world. I heard people saying that. I'm hearing them say it to this day. So that's where things got messed up. And honestly, we have ground to make up. I'm very grieved over where President Biden is going with his administration.

It's exactly where I expected him to go, which is why I voted against him in voting for Donald Trump. But I believe the key thing here, sir, is that the church has not been the church, that we have been so caught up with politics. We have looked so much to the political system instead of saying it has its place. But here's how we change Americans by serving our communities and being salt and light and preaching Jesus and standing for what's right. Instead, we've looked to the political system to change.

And that, in my view, has been our fundamental failing. So that's my long, big answer to your question. I appreciate that a lot. It's a lot of my own feeling as well.

I guess I would sort of ask, if I may, as a brief follow up. Yeah. Why do you suppose it is that we have guys who are really strong on the things that Trump was strong on, but also deeply constitutional, deeply Christian? You know, immediately comes to mind are guys like Ted Cruz and Rand Paul in the Senate at the moment.

So why is it that we don't seem to be able to generate support for those kinds of people? Is it possibly almost because of our hyperpolitical realization? Because I've often thought that Trump did very well to, you know, kind of expose a lot of facets of America and almost thought of him as a judgment. Yeah, well, there's certainly that. Yeah, Jay, I believe that there has God's multitasking, right?

God's doing many things at the same time. And I believe one reason that Trump was raised up was not just for the good policies, but also to reveal a lot of junk in America, in the Republican Party, in the Democratic Party, in the media, in the church, that a lot of junk has been revealed as a result of his presidency. Look, I opposed him during the primaries. I was a Cruz guy.

Really, I was anybody but Trump during the primaries. There was a certain populist appeal that he had. I don't believe he's a racist personally.

I don't think he's a white supremacist. I believe that many Americans felt the country is going in the wrong direction. And finally, here's the guy that's going to stand and fight and do it in a way that the media attacks him.

He's going to attack back. But it appealed to a lot of carnal stuff in us. I believe it appealed to some good stuff and concerns about where the nation's going and concerns about our freedoms being hijacked and things like that.

But I believe he also appealed to some carnal things and just something about him had that appeal. But look, Joe Biden did not generate a lot of enthusiasm. The main reason people voted for Biden was to vote against Trump. Now, Barack Obama, he got tremendous enthusiasm. John McCain, not so much. Mitt Romney, not so much. So just a certain type of candidate can generate more of the enthusiasm and the support.

But then the problem is you then look to that person. Look, Barack Obama was called the chosen one. Remember, Newsweek's got a picture of him with a halo over his head and he's the chosen one. And now Trump is the chosen one. And there's only one chosen one. That's the Lord.

That's the Lord Jesus. He's the chosen one. And we are chosen in him.

So we need to get our priorities right and straight. And finally learn there are no political saviors. There are no political saviors. Political leaders can do some good, some bad, but ultimately change is going to come by the people of God awakening and being who we're supposed to be. And then we vote accordingly.

We call on our political leaders to do the right thing. But look, for those who don't know me, this has been my steady message for years and years and years, even as a Trump voter and Trump supporter. Many of you got mad at me because I'd always point out, but we're not looking to him in this way.

And there are issues with his character. I was saying that because these things do matter. So let's learn as we can. We are where we are right now with the Biden Harris presidency. Let's learn what we can. Let's move forward constructively. Let's major on the majors and put politics where it belongs, which is way down the list of our priorities. Right back with your calls.

Six, six, three, four, three. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. You know, I was just sent a headline that President Biden's allowing LGBT flags to be flown at embassies around the world. Just haven't read the story, but looked at the headline was Donald Trump pro homosexual, anti homosexual. Actually, gay activists considered him to be the most hostile LGBT president in our history. Obviously wasn't an issue in certain past generations.

And then more recently it was. But actual laws, the thrust of the Department of Justice, things that happen in schools, military, he was considered to be strongly anti LGBT. It's also clear that was on a personal level.

He didn't seem to have any issue. In other words, he told Bruce Kaitlyn Jenner that he could use women's bathroom at Trump Tower if he wanted to. And he brought in Richard Grinnell into his cabinet. So he was the highest ranking gay American that we've had and had as Adam is what the ambassador to Germany was it. So my stance was Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal, had him speak at the Republican National Convention and teal himself openly gay. So my impression was on a personal level, he had no issue with gays, lesbians and was not trying to legislate against them. But when anything would push back against our religious liberties or push back against our values in a direct way in the schools and things, then he stood strongly against the activism.

So that was my perception as to where things were. But the activism now of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris is very much something that is radical and unprecedented in terms of the aggression, the strength behind it, which again is a reason we voted as we did. Here we are. Let's move forward. It's not the end of the world. We're not going to lose our right to have a Bible in the next year. We're not going to all have to learn to speak Chinese because China's taking over. But there's some serious policy directions we really differ with. Biggest thing is let's get on doing what we're called to do is the people of God, where we live in our own neighborhoods and communities, give ourselves to prayer, live for God rightly, and then two years from now vote, vote accordingly, four years, vote. But that is all in its right perspective.

That cannot be central. That cannot be our hope. And for all those who are saying Trump will come back any day now, forget that.

It's not going to happen. Don't be looking to him and whatever future role he has or good he can do. Pray that God will really get hold of the man. We know he's tough. We know he's strong. We know he's courageous. We know he kept his promises in so many ways that shows character.

And then there are the downsides to his character that were very destructive and that leave us where we are today. So pray for the man. Pray that God would really get hold of him and pray that God would really get hold of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

Hey, if God get hold of me, if God get hold of some of you with your backgrounds, if God get hold of Saul of Tarsus, right, the apostle Paul, God can get hold of anyone. So let's pray. Let's pray with faith. Where's your faith, Dr. Brown?

How can we not believing for Trump to be the president? Well, number one, God didn't tell me he would. So how can I exercise faith in something God didn't tell me? And number two, my faith is massively bigger than that. My faith is that God can move when Mao Zedong is the leader of China or Nero is the leader of Rome, let alone Joe Biden, the leader of America. Come on. My faith is much bigger than that.

I hope yours is too. 866-34-TRUTH. Let us go to Dahlia in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Welcome to The Line of Fire. Hi.

Yes, my name is Dahlia and I'm actually from Israel, but I live in Maryland and I'm a believer in Yeshua, Jesus. Wonderful. So hello, Dr. Michael Brown. It's great to hear that. Thank you.

I love your books and your show and everything. So I'm very, very frustrated about, I happen to know personally, some Jewish believers in Yeshua and 40 years in faith still voted for Biden and emphasizing things like that in Facebook. And I mean, I actually faced them with different things and nothing, no results. So I wish you to explain me or something. I can't understand. I don't understand that. I mean, I almost giving grace, well, God gives grace to other people, but the Jewish believers, they know better. They know better. And I'm very frustrated about it.

Yeah. So first thing, Dahlia, of course, is you have grace towards others. God does not judge us in terms of our eternal salvation based on a vote that we cast for president in our elections. And you have Christians that are very strong and passionate on all different sides. As to why they why they voted the way they did, it's even more unusual to hear Jewish believers did because Jewish believers, Messianic Jews, tend to be more pro-Israel than your average American Jew. And Trump was the most pro-Israel president we've had, moving the embassy, the peace treaties and things like that, real concerns whereby the administration would go in terms of Israel and Palestinians.

So that's really baffling. Like I know, for example, black Christian friends and and they voted for Biden because in their view, Trump did a lot of damage with who he was. In their view, abortion happened just the same under Trump as anybody else that abortion is going to change from the grassroots up rather than from the top down. And and they preferred various things in a Biden administration to Trump. I understand people having different perspectives, but it is for Jewish believers in particular, because they're so strongly pro-Israel and also share our values about pro-life and pro-family, etc.

I don't know. You know, I know that the vast majority of American Jews voted for Joe Biden. The vast majority of American Jews are Democrat, and they tend to share a lot of values with with a lot of black Americans in terms of priorities and how they vote.

And there's a common concern, say, with the Jewish community about like Christian right taking over the society and stuff like that. But it's it's actually I know some messianic Jews that didn't vote for Trump just because they felt he was so destructive with his character, that he was turning the church into like an angry entity, that we were so caught up with with nationalism in an unhealthy way. But they didn't vote for Biden either.

They just they voted third party or they sat that part out. So I tell you, I can't explain why. Obviously, I don't know the people. But the thing is, I'm going to love.

I'm going to bless. And I'm going to say, OK, tell tell me what I'm going to try to find out. Hey, share your perspective.

And I may I may differ intensely and very intensely after. But let me try to understand. Let me find common ground, because there are not that many of us. You know, what are we? One percent of the world population of Jews that believe in Yeshua as Yehudim Yishechim, you know, especially Sabra's like you, even a smaller number.

So let's let's keep our unity in Yeshua. And then I just try to find out, hey, I'm not judging. I just don't get it. I can see you not voting for either candidate. Like my wife, Nancy, ultimately said, I can't vote for either candidate. I don't want Trump, I don't want Biden.

And what do I do? But to vote for Biden, that still baffles me. And check my latest article out at AskDrBrown.org or Stream.org where I speak directly to Christians who voted for Biden and say, didn't you see this coming? The agenda, where he's going.

Hey, thank you for the call. See you again. So and by the way, to Christians who voted for Biden, one thing I'm saying is don't look at me self-righteous. Oh, you vote for Trump.

I'll turn around and say, how do you vote for Biden? And then let's all fall on our face at the foot of the cross. So my assessment is we miserably failed the Trump test, miserably failed. Number one, we are not united around Jesus. We have been tearing each other up. We have been attacking each other.

We have been judging each other's salvation based on how we voted. I mean, look, I get attacked. The moment I just recognized Joe Biden as president, I didn't vote for him. I recognized him as president. Now I'm a communist, flaming liberal, baby killer, owned by the deep state. I mean, it's crazy stuff.

It's like, where is this coming from? So have we united around Jesus even if we divide over Trump? No. Failed big time there. Did we vote for him without tarnishing our witness? No, we tarnished our witness.

Why? Because we got so identified. I mean, rallies and churches and Christian leaders at the rallies and and draping the gospel in the flag and then taking on the venom and the hatred of politics and bring it right into the church. We've heard our witness badly. I just heard from a British Christian who said the witness, his witness in England has been hurt by white evangelical support for Trump in America. Not that we voted for him, but the way we became his people and known as Trump people more than Jesus people. I say we failed the Trump test.

That's a big reason we don't have four more years of Donald Trump. In my view, in my view, I can share is my view. And if it gets you upset, well, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm just in the flesh and opinionated and foolish and pray for me then. But maybe I'm right. Maybe what I'm saying is true and accurate.

The reason it gets you upset is because it's hitting something in there. All right, do we have time for, let's try one more call. Dan in Wake Forest, North Carolina. Time is short, but please weigh in with your thoughts. Okay, so real quick, we as the church are individually responsible for ourselves, and in our country we're very blessed to be able to choose our leaders, and although we only have a couple choices at the end, no one participates in the primary when we actually get to choose. But our country, the leadership ends up being a symptom of the people's heart.

Half the people in the church, or I should say the church people that consider themselves believers, will divorce rate, cheat on their taxes, and all the other things that were called to be different and set apart. We do those same things, and then we look at who God allows to be our leader, whether it be Trump or Biden, and we, either side of the issue that we want to take, we rally and rave against it. It's about our own heart, and that's the problem. It is our own heart as a believer that is the problem. Our government is a symptom of our country, and the Christians out there, just as a quick... Well, tell you what, you got a great word in, and we're out of time. You nailed it. What's the condition of our heart? What's the condition of our lives? Everything around us ultimately is going to be a symptom of that because there are tens of millions of us here in America.